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Semicolons

The idea behind the semicolon

1.
Introduction

2.
The purpose of the semicolon

Basic semicolon examples

3.
They felt this way; I felt the opposite.

4.
It was this; it was that.

5.
Statement; explanation.

6.
Effect; explanation.

7.
Rule; explanation.

8.
Action; feeling one way, and another.

9.
Item, feature; item, feature.

10.
Wrapping up

11.
Conclusion

Wrapping up

12.
Portfolio piece 1

13.
Portfolio piece 2

14.
Portfolio piece 3

15.
Portfolio piece 4

The idea behind the semicolon

1.
Introduction

There is this thing in English called a semicolon.

It looks like this: ;

99.9% of people have no idea how to use a semicolon; most people don’t even know it exists. But once you know about it you start to see it everywhere, and it turns out to be a really useful grammatical device.

Read the snippets below and highlight the semicolons when you find them. What effect do you think they create?

This is a Highlighting exercise - please apply these tags to this snippet.

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Suddenly, her eyes grew wide, as if with fear; I realized, to my horror, that her face was starting to melt.

2.
The purpose of the semicolon

Think about the semicolon in terms of pauses.

When you are reading and you hit a comma, you pause briefly, and then you carry on until you hit a full stop. This makes you pause a bit longer, perhaps even take a breath. And then you carry on again.

So if a comma is a small pause...

And a period or full stop is a long pause...

Then a semicolon is sort of medium pause: less than a full stop, but more than a comma.

Why would you want this medium pause? Two possible reasons.

First, you want two statements to be just a little bit closer together because you think they are closely related.

This is a Highlighting exercise - please apply these tags to this snippet.

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Dad, meanwhile, was saying he was not asking me for the money; he was telling me to give it to him.

Second, to separate items in a list—especially if the items are wordy or have commas inside them.

This is a Highlighting exercise - please apply these tags to this snippet.

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I liked to play in the graveyard after service; I liked my parents' pre- and post-commentary in the car; I liked being doted on by parishioners; and I loved, absolutely was infatuated with, Myra Narbonne.

Notice how the there are two clauses after the semicolon. What’s that about?

…scared to leave something behind, scared we might be left behind.

The two clauses are opposites. As these characters are tripping and stumbling they are simultaneously afraid of losing their belongings, and of being left behind by the others because they are too busy trying to keep hold of their belongings.

This is a Highlighting exercise - please apply these tags to this snippet.

9.
Item, feature; item, feature.

Normally when you write a list, you use commas between each item. Let’s look at an example of using semicolons in a list.

This is a Highlighting exercise - please apply these tags to this snippet.

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Long enough for my father to move up the academic ranks by taking promotions that took the two of them, and then the four of us, to Madison, Wisconsin; Rockville, Maryland; and, finally, Paoli, Pennsylvania.

But it doesn't just have to be a list of places; it can be a list where any item uses commas.

This is a Highlighting exercise - please apply these tags to this snippet.

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My school bag was full of surprises, like a slimy banana, which I scraped out; a rat skeleton, which I put in Anna's desk; a handful of loose peanut M&Ms, which I ate; and a mummified spider, which I kept.

This is a Highlighting exercise - please apply these tags to this snippet.

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I spent my birthday money on a whole bunch of junk, including an aquarium tank with a crack down the side; an old Twister set with the spinner missing; a collection of dolls, which all looked slightly creepy and evil; and an ant farm for Tom, who had told me that he wanted one for Christmas.